Post-Communist life writing and the discourses of history: Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries

Ioana Luca

doi:10.1080/13642520802639686

Post-Communist life writing and the discourses of history: Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries

Ioana Luca^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Life writing in the aftermath of an Eastern European totalitarian regime combines the thorniest problems in autobiography - memory and self-representation - with the divisive aspects of remembering: blame and guilt. In the context of the war-torn former Yugoslavia, the use of memory, personal history, recollection, self-representation or the representability of one's autobiography become burning issues that inform one's understanding and rendering of historical moments. This essay analyses Chernobyl Strawberries by focusing on the way Vesna Goldsworthy recollects and portrays her homeland under Communism, the ways in which articulating personal life and family stories become crucial ways of writing recent Yugoslav history and explaining the loss of her native country to a British audience.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	79-93
Number of pages	15
Journal	Rethinking History
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13642520802639686
Publication status	Published - 2009
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Academic autobiography
Eastern Europe
Historiography
Post-communism
Vesna Goldsworthy
Yugoslavia

ASJC Scopus subject areas

History

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10.1080/13642520802639686

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title = "Post-Communist life writing and the discourses of history: Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries",

abstract = "Life writing in the aftermath of an Eastern European totalitarian regime combines the thorniest problems in autobiography - memory and self-representation - with the divisive aspects of remembering: blame and guilt. In the context of the war-torn former Yugoslavia, the use of memory, personal history, recollection, self-representation or the representability of one's autobiography become burning issues that inform one's understanding and rendering of historical moments. This essay analyses Chernobyl Strawberries by focusing on the way Vesna Goldsworthy recollects and portrays her homeland under Communism, the ways in which articulating personal life and family stories become crucial ways of writing recent Yugoslav history and explaining the loss of her native country to a British audience.",

keywords = "Academic autobiography, Eastern Europe, Historiography, Post-communism, Vesna Goldsworthy, Yugoslavia",

author = "Ioana Luca",

note = "Funding Information: Ioana Luca is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Bucharest, where she teaches courses in American Studies, American literature, and life writing. She has just completed her Ph.D. dissertation titled the Autobiography of Displacement in American Literature. This paper is the partial result of a research project supported by the UEFISCSU (PNII ID1000/2007).",

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N1 - Funding Information: Ioana Luca is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Bucharest, where she teaches courses in American Studies, American literature, and life writing. She has just completed her Ph.D. dissertation titled the Autobiography of Displacement in American Literature. This paper is the partial result of a research project supported by the UEFISCSU (PNII ID1000/2007).

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Life writing in the aftermath of an Eastern European totalitarian regime combines the thorniest problems in autobiography - memory and self-representation - with the divisive aspects of remembering: blame and guilt. In the context of the war-torn former Yugoslavia, the use of memory, personal history, recollection, self-representation or the representability of one's autobiography become burning issues that inform one's understanding and rendering of historical moments. This essay analyses Chernobyl Strawberries by focusing on the way Vesna Goldsworthy recollects and portrays her homeland under Communism, the ways in which articulating personal life and family stories become crucial ways of writing recent Yugoslav history and explaining the loss of her native country to a British audience.

AB - Life writing in the aftermath of an Eastern European totalitarian regime combines the thorniest problems in autobiography - memory and self-representation - with the divisive aspects of remembering: blame and guilt. In the context of the war-torn former Yugoslavia, the use of memory, personal history, recollection, self-representation or the representability of one's autobiography become burning issues that inform one's understanding and rendering of historical moments. This essay analyses Chernobyl Strawberries by focusing on the way Vesna Goldsworthy recollects and portrays her homeland under Communism, the ways in which articulating personal life and family stories become crucial ways of writing recent Yugoslav history and explaining the loss of her native country to a British audience.

KW - Academic autobiography

KW - Eastern Europe

KW - Historiography

KW - Post-communism

KW - Vesna Goldsworthy

KW - Yugoslavia

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DO - 10.1080/13642520802639686

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ER -

Post-Communist life writing and the discourses of history: Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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